Inter-District Disparities in Economic Development in Chhattisgarh

 

Nilesh Kumar Tiwari¹, Dr. Ritesh Kumar Agrawal², Dr. Ravindra Brahme³

¹Research Scholar, School of Studies in Economics, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur

²Assistant Professor, Government College, Vaishali Nagar, Bhilai

 

ABSTRACT:

This research paper examines inter-district disparities in economic development in Chhattisgarh stateover the period of 2001-02 to 2011-12. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) composite index of economic development (CIED) has been constructed for evaluating status of economic development among 16 districts of Chhattisgarh. This study concludes that top ranked districts of Chhattisgarh at CIED has been Durg, Raipur and Korba and they has retained their topmost position in the ranking during both reference years at CIED. ED in Raipur, Dhamtari and Raigarh districts of Chhattisgarh has improved significantly over the period of a decade 2001-02 to 2011-12. On the other hand districts such as Dantewada, Surguja, Bastar, Kanker and Jashpur were at bottom of CIED over the period of 2001-02 to 2011-12.

              

 

1. INTRODUCTION:

Economic development (ED) contributes significantly towards improving the socio-economic status and well-being of individuals in any country. The process of economic development utilizes the productive resources i.e. both natural and human resources for improvement in socio-economic development of a region during a specific period of time.

 

Disparities or inequalities in economic and social development have been acknowledged among Indian states¹. According to United Nations (UN) concept note on ‘Inequality’ by Afonso et al. (2015)², disparities in economic development have been viewed in two different approaches among economists. First approach considers economic disparity or inequality as ‘inequality of opportunities’ which can further be understood from theories of social justice. Whereas the second approach of economic disparity means inequality in income opportunities or inequality in monetary and living standards of individuals.

 

Therefore according to Afonso et al. (2015),  “Economic inequality refers to how economic variables are distributed-among individuals in a group, among groups in a population, or among countries. Development theory has largely been concerned with inequalities in standards of living, such as inequalities in income/wealth, education, health, and nutrition. Much of this discussion has boiled down to a debate between two perspectives:

 

the first is primarily concerned with the inequality of opportunities, such as unequal access to employment or education; and the second with the inequality of outcomes in various material dimensions of human well-being, such as the level of income, educational attainment, health status and so on” ¹.  

 

This research paper examines the status of disparities in economic development among 16 districts of Chhattisgarh for the year 2001-02 and 2011-12 through considering 6 indicators of economic development. These are agricultural development, rate of urbanization (ROU), work participation rate (WPR), financial inclusion (FI), per capita electricity consumption (Kwh) (PCEC) and credit-deposit ratio (C-DR). Agricultural development has been evaluated through considering the following variables; percentage of area cropped to total geographical area, cropping intensity, gross irrigated area as percent of gross cropped area, number of pumps / tube-wells energized per 1,000 hectares of gross cropped area, percentage of agricultural laborers to district population, average yield (ton/hectare) of paddy, gram, sugarcane, maize, livestock density per sq. Km.

 

Followings are the objectives of this study;

1.      To examine inter-district disparities in ED in Chhattisgarh over the period of 2001-11

2.      To suggest the measures to reduce disparities in ED in Chhattisgarh

 

2. METHODOLOGY:

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been used to construct composite index of economic development (CIED) for the year 2001-02 and 2011-12. Thus based on the ranking of districts, the status of economic development has been analyzed accordingly. This study considers original sixteen districts of Chhattisgarh state for evaluating the level of economic development at district level.

 

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

PCA based CIED has been shown by table-1,which discusses about the ranking of all sixteen districts of the Chhattisgarh for the year 2001-02 and 2011-12. Districts such as Durg followed by Korba, Raipur, Koriya, Bilaspur and Jajgir-Champa and Dhamtari performed well on CIED for the year 2001-02. Top ranked districts such as Durg, Raipur and Korba has retained their topmost position in the ranking during both reference years at CIED. ED in Raipur, Dhamtari and Raigarh districts of Chhattisgarh has improved significantly over the period of a decade 2001-02 to 2011-12.On the other hand districts such as Dantewada, Surguja, Bastar, Kanker and Jashpur were at bottom of CIED over the period of 2001-02 to 2011-12. Thus the relative positions of districts at CIED in Chhattisgarhhas not changed much but it has remained same more or less same over the period of the decade i.e. 2001-11.

 

In order to reduce disparities in economic development among the districts of Chhattisgarh followings suggestions are hereunder mentioned; giving emphasis on agricultural sector through addressing the issues of irrigation facilities, enhancing the productivity of major commercial crops depending upon the climatic conditions of the districts in the Chhattisgarh. Next is promotion and encouragement to exports of items such as agricultural produce, handicraft items, herbal medicinal items, handloom etc. from Chhattisgarh. Therefore exports of these commodities / items will facilitate towards employment generation. Further promotion of tourism in Chhattisgarh state at national and international forums can be done for attracting foreign tourists and development of infrastructure accordingly in districts. Again through putting more emphasis on programmes like ‘Chhattisgarh Tribal Development Programme’ for improved socio-economic development of tribal districts of Chhattisgarh can address the issue of disparities in economic development. Further, setting up of growth centers in the underdeveloped districts of Chhattisgarh on the basis of social cost-benefit analysis can be done for balanced socio-economic development among the districts of Chhattisgarh.

 

Table 1: Ranking of districts on CIED in Chhattisgarh

S N	Districts	2001-02		2011-12
		CI	Rank	CI	Rank
1	Bastar	-1.265	14	-0.544	14
2	Bilaspur	0.050	5	0.641	7
3	Dantewada	-1.060	12	-0.385	13
4	Dhamtari	-0.436	7	0.984	4
5	Durg	1.406	1	1.737	2
6	Janjgir-champa	-0.327	6	-0.219	11
7	Jashpur	-1.605	16	-1.108	16
8	Kanker	-1.412	15	-0.709	15
9	Kawardha	-0.953	11	0.216	10
10	Korba	0.851	2	1.204	3
11	Koriya	0.290	4	0.858	5
12	Mahasamund	-0.698	10	0.571	8
13	Raigarh	-0.596	9	0.675	6
14	Raipur	0.755	3	2.608	1
15	Rajnandgaon	-0.562	8	0.424	9
16	Surguja	-1.146	13	-0.242	12

 

4. REFERENCES:

1.     Nair, K R G. (2004), ‘Economic reforms and regional disparities in economic and social development in India’, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

2.     Afonso et al. (2015)., ‘Concepts of Inequality’, Development issues No. 1, Development Policy and Analysis division of UN, available at http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/ wess_dev_issues/dsp_policy_01.pdf